Real World

My oh my does life move fast.  In the past few months I have done so much.

I've done a bit of traveling, starting with a cruise to the Bahamas, Aruba, & Curacao in January.

Me, Brie & Christine on board before leaving port.

It was my first cruise and CERTAINLY not my last.  It was a lot of fun and was great to be in the Caribbean sun in the middle of New England's winter.

Upon returning to New England wicked tan, I chose to spend time at home, opting to hold off starting my job for 6 months.  Not even a month later, this awesome (sarcasm) snowstorm named Nemo came through, dumping over 2 feet of snow.  Normally, I wouldn't care, but this being the first serious snowstorm that I was home for, and my brother no longer living at home, I became my dad's right hand man for snow removal.  It was much more difficult that I ever could have imagined, but it also was more snow that man dad ever tried to snow blow at once.  It literally was over the top of the snowblower.

Just casual snowblowing.

The rest of winter was rather uneventful.  Then, in April my parents and I went on a trip for my graduation to Arizona (Phoenix, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon) and Las Vegas.

Every moment of the trip was memorable.  To start, we met one of my dad's clients.  This man is a holocaust survivor and hearing his story from him (as opposed to a textbook) was so remarkable.  It was a little too long ago for me to perfectly quote, but what he experienced is more than any human ever should.  Yet, he is so proud to now be an American and lives each day happy to be in the greatest country on Earth.  While many people complain about anything and everything in their life, he doesn't let it effect him and lives each day to the fullest.

The whole group at dinner.

Being a family of avid sports fans, we went to an Arizona Diamondbacks game and the following day did a tour of the stadium.  It is quite a remarkably stadium, everywhere you looked there was something interesting.  From the rightfield pool, to the retractable roof and AC, to the tire by the dugout so players no longer take their frustration out on the toilet.  It was also rather surprising that you could see so much of the stadium on the tour, where as at Fenway, it takes the same amount of time, but you only see a fraction of the stadium.

In the dugout.

We then left Phoenix and drove to Sedona, which is one of the most beautiful and photogenic places I have been.  Everywhere you look there are red rock formations many with walking/hiking trails.  Although we didn't follow any of the trails, we went to a park where great pictures can be taken of cathedral rock.  Ideally, I would have loved to stay longer taking more pictures of the rocks with the sun setting on them, but you can only do so much when you are on a vacation and trying to see many places.

Cathedral Rock

There was also a bit of wind when we were here, but normally, the water in front of the rock would be perfectly still and the rock formation would be reflected.  Oh well, I guess I'll have to go back to Sedona!!  While in Sedona we also decided to go on a Pink Jeep Tour.  Specifically, we chose the Diamondback Gulch tour.  It was absolutely amazing.  We were the only people on the tour and that made it much easier to ask if we could stop to take more pictures.  After doing some light driving, we then go to experience the true range of their custom jeeps.  Not only was it necessary to be buckled in, you truly needed to hold on as the jeep drove down steep inclines that were practically vertical.  

In the jeep preparing for a steep decline.

Big Dan had some bright white hands from holding on so tight!

After a fun day and a half in Sedona, we drove to the Grand Canyon, and again, what a beautiful sight!  We went on another Pink Jeep Tour because with our limited time frame there was no way to see more of the Canyon than on the tour.  We did a sunset tour and sadly, it got extremely windy so we had to move away from the edge where there are some of the most magnificent views.  None the less, it was an experience I will never forget, and a place I will most certainly visit again!

Me, Mom and Dad at the Grand Canyon

Dad, Mom and me in front of the entrance to the park

The last leg of our trip was to Las Vegas.  While I'm sure I would have had a much different experience with friends as opposed to my parents, it was still fun and exciting to be in Vegas.  Aside from a little gambling, we did one of our favorite city excursions - double decker bus tours.  Having travelled a lot in the past year, we have now done the double decker bus tour in London, NYC and Vegas.  It is a great way to see a lot of the city, and hear the local perspective on it.  It also allows you to park your car in one place, and allow someone else to do the driving, affording everyone the opportunity to experience the area without the hassle of attempting to navigate.

The three of us on the wrap around balcony at our hotel

View of the strip

From Vegas, we also took a road trip to see the Hoover Dam.  It is an insane creation!!!

With the dam behind me.

On top of the dam, with the bridge in the distance.

In all, this trip was absolutely amazing.  I would love to return to any and all of them at some point in my life as I'm sure the experience would be different, but equally fantastic.